Broncos try to avoid late slide

Rivers, San Diego have fared well when visiting Denver

ENGLEWOOD -- When the calendar makes the turn from October to November, the leaves fall, the clocks fall back and the Broncos have followed suit in recent years.

Since their appearance in the AFC championship game to close out the 2005 season, the Broncos are a less-than-robust 22-32 (a .407 winning percentage) in regular-season games played in November, December and January. They have watched potentially promising season after season dissolve in their almost annual struggles down the stretch.

Which is why, even with a chance to put a two-hand, lock-it-down grip on the AFC West race Sunday with a victory over the Chargers at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, the Broncos have tried to add some perspective to things.

"The biggest key right now is to just keep doing what we're doing," cornerback Champ Bailey said. "It's easy to get caught up in things. We've had some success. But we've seen this before. You can't let the little things get away from you, the little things lead to the big things.

"Right now, we all need to just keep working every week to do what we're supposed to do, week in and week out, and don't let things get away from us."

The Chargers have been the chief protagonists for the Broncos in those stumbles. Between 2006 and 2009 the Chargers won four consecutive division titles, passing the slumping Broncos along the way in each of those seasons.

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No more glaring example is available than in 2008 when the Broncos were three games up in the AFC West -- 8-5, compared to the Chargers' 5-8 -- with three games to play, including the regular-season finale in San Diego.

The Broncos lost three straight, including a 52-21 thrashing by the Chargers in what turned out to be Mike Shanahan's last game with the franchise. The Chargers won three straight and won the division with that final-week victory. And even with the shadow of the Broncos' season-changing, comeback victory in San Diego last month, the Chargers also have won in their past three trips to Denver, including last October. That's a tidy little factoid Broncos coach John Fox has conveyed to his team.

"I know we are 0-3 over the last times they've played in our house," Fox said. "They're a good football team. People remember us coming back. I remember (being down) 24-0. It's a division game. They're always huge. They always almost count as two. That'll be our approach."

The Broncos have only eight players on their 53-man roster who were with the team for that '09 collapse, a total that doesn't include many of the current marquee players such as Peyton Manning, Von Miller, Demaryius Thomas and Willis McGahee.

But the ones who were, such as Bailey, Elvis Dumervil, Chris Kuper, Wesley Woodyard and Brandon Stokley, say they have to provide the refresher course, the historical context, for the others.

"It's important we all kind of just keep our heads down and work," Stokley said. "You always remember when things like that happen. I think as I get older, I really understand, and even this offseason when I didn't think I would be playing this year, you just don't get many opportunities to make great seasons. You can't let any get away, and think 'Oh, we'll just get that one back,' because you never know. They are hard to make in the first place. They're even harder to get back if you don't make the most of it."

That 2005 season also marks the last time the Broncos won three December games in a row, and it's the last time the Broncos won at least three November games and three December games in the same season.

"We're just part way through the season," Fox said. "We're one game after halftime and, albeit a good start, we've strung four (wins) together and you want to keep that going. At the end of the day, you're trying to win your division and we haven't clinched that yet by any stretch. Really, it's, what have you done for me lately? And we've got a new test this week. That's the message. We've got our bar set pretty high and we'll see where that brings us."

Notable

The Broncos cleared the way to add linebacker D.J. Williams to the 53-man roster. The team waived rookie safety Duke Ihenacho Tuesday, opening up a spot. The Broncos have a roster exemption this week to allow Williams to practice with the team as he comes back from two suspensions that totaled nine games.

As of Tuesday the Broncos had not added Williams to their 53-man roster. He was set to practice Wednesday under the exemption. If the Broncos want to play Williams in Sunday's game, he will have to be moved to the roster. The roster exemption doesn't formally run out until Monday.

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